Preparation and maintenance of lawns and gardens has great commercial and homeowner interest. Portable tools for work on lawns and gardens are largely manually operated. In recent years, the use of powered tools has increased especially gasoline engine and electrically powered tools. These tools include lawn edgers, trimmers, cultivators, leaf blowers and hedge trimmers.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,213,504 Schneider discloses a rotary, hand-held apparatus for performing various soil working operations. The soil working implements selectively include soil engaging tines, auger, drill, etc. The device may employ manual, electrical, gas, etc. power sources and cultivating, mulching, weeding, boring, etc. implements. In one embodiment, an electric drill is secured to a handle to drive the implements. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,293,041 Holmstadt et al disclose a power cultivator with a debris-excluding barrier and scraper, wherein the tillers are counter-rotated and include interdigitating tines which engage and move the earth forwardly. Worm gears on the tillers are driven by a common centrally located shaft mounted worm gears. Rickard et al in U.S. Pat. No. 5,802,724 and Everts et al in U.S. Pat. No. 5,809,653 disclose a coupling for a split-boom power tool having an attachment which may include a hedge trimmer, line trimmer, pruner, blower or extension. The motor directly drives the attachment, there being no gearing therebetween. Lessig III et al in U.S. Pat. No. D 252,879, disclose an electric-powered earth tiller.
In U.S. Pat. No. 2,975,848 Roberts discloses a portable power-driven device for boring holes which has a pinion gear on the power shaft of the motor and a larger driven gear meshing with the teeth of the pinion gear. The driven gear is attached to the shaft of a chuck. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,366,871 Dieterle et al disclose a motor-driven screwdriver, wherein a planetary gear carrier carries a plurality of circumferentially-displaced planet gears meshing with a pinion driven by the motor of the screwdriver. The screwdriver does not have a cascade of planet gears.
There is a need for a portable power-driven lawn and garden tool which has interchangeable implements.